Our elementary Instant Lesson, "Cyber School
Bullies" reports that children around the world are
experiencing bullying online. A new survey of people in more
than 24 countries found that a quarter of parents worldwide
knew a youngster who has been a cyberbully victim. This lesson
will help students learn and talk about the topic.

As
London gears up for the Olympics, two teenage girls in
Afghanistan are preparing for the women's boxing
event. Shabnam and Sadaf Rahimi train in a dusty gym with
broken mirrors as they try to fulfill their
dream. Despite death threats, their father and their
coach are helping them prepare for the Olympics. " It was
my dream to become a boxer. At first my father did not agree
with me. He said girls should not be boxing," 18 year-old
Sadaf told Reuters, out of breath from punching the bag.
"After I got my first medal, he changed his mind."
Students talk about Olympic sports and learn of the Rahimi
girls' struggles as they do our Upper Intermediate Instant
Lesson "Punching For Gold".

We also look at
a website trying to help pet owners and their cat and dog pets
lose weight "Petsercise" - Intermediate
Instant Lesson.

The story of a relieved music student
who has been reunited with her loaned $170,000 violin
"Lost and Found" is this
month's Pre-Intermediate Instant Lesson and we have
worksheets and exercises on animals: "Farm
Animals" - Max Vocab worksheet - Pre Intermediate and
"Animals" - Weekly Warmer - Intermediate and
above.

Plenty to keep you and your students
interested!

Best wishes,The English To Go Team

Newest Resources

Click here to access the newest
resourcesNewest resources in the Teachers' Room
include:

- Cyber School Bullies - Elementary Instant
Lesson Parents around the world say
cyberbullying is a problem says a new survey and in the
Netherlands some children bully other children online.
Cyberbullying, computer technology, schools, describing future
plans, be going to.

- Lost and Found - Pre Intermediate Instant
Lesson A Boston music student got lucky when
she was reunited with the $170,000 violin she had left in a
bus. Money, valuable things.

Our resources are used by
more than 55,000 teachers in 190 countries reaching over one
million students worldwide. Fun, engaging, up-to-date
resources based on Thomson ReutersŪ news
articles.

Featured
lessons

Click here to access resources on our Featured
lessons: Valentine's Day - February
14th.

Featured Resources include: - Gifts
to Kill a Romance - Upper Intermediate Instant Lesson
Yahoo lists the top 10 worst gifts for new
relationships. Dating, brainstorming, working with
unfamiliar vocabulary, reading for gist, some/any.- Falling in Love - Weekly
Warmer - Pre-Intermediate and aboveThis
warmer gets students to read and look for spelling
errors as well as understand the history behind
Valentine's Day, discuss a topic and then work together
to design a card.

This month's Teaching Point comes from our Intermediate Instant Lesson,
'The Doll With
The Dragon Tattoo?''...Since its release earlier this month online,
the $50 limited edition doll designed by Los
Angeles-based fashion company tokidoki and aimed at
adult collectors, has sold out but not before causing
controversy.

"Is the New 'Tokidoki' Tattoo
Barbie Inappropriate for Children?" the magazine
U.S. News & World Report asked in a recent
headline.

Some parents in the United States also
questioned whether the toy company that launched the
original Barbie in 1959 should be promoting body
art.

"It's teaching kids to want tattoos
before they are old enough to dress like that,"
Kevin Buckner, of Virginia, told a local television
station.

No one was available from Mattel to
comment on the issue but not all the feedback has been
negative. Some adults said the doll reflected modern
fashion and pop culture.

"Have you seen Lady
Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Rihanna?" Candace
Caswell, a 30-year-old mother from New York asked in an
email interview, adding that the pop stars have tattoos
and wear wigs and crazy clothes. "They are capturing
a snapshot of pop culture the way it really is. Barbie
is not raising my daughter. I am," she
added.

For Heather Gately Stoll, of Colorado,
tattoos are not the issue. "What is inappropriate
for kids are her measurements," she said about the
shapely doll. "If she can change personalities why
can't she change her shape and size?"

And
while New York mother Sue Dennis would not spend $50 on
the doll, she is not offended by it. "I have a 16
month-old son and the tokidoki Barbie is more the
diverse image of women I would like to present to him
versus more traditional ones," she said.

The
tokidoki Barbie is not the first to sport tattoos. In
2009, some stores pulled Mattel's Totally Stylin'
Tattoos Barbie following complaints, and a year earlier
Mattel collaborated with motorcycle manufacturer Harley
Davidson to produce a Barbie with wings tattooed on her
back. Production of tattooed Butterfly Art Barbie was
halted in 1999 after parents voiced their
concerns.

Gayatri Bhalla, 41, of Washington D.C,
who writes a blog about experiences for tween girls,
sees it as a marketing issue. "One the one hand, the
company likes to hold Barbie up as the iconic American
toy for girls and use her to promote things that most
parents wouldn't object to, such as Take Your Daughter
To Work Day," she said. "But they also create
Barbie in images that a lot of parents wouldn't choose
to hold up as a role model for their young daughters,
and a full-body tattooed doll falls into this
camp..."'

Thomson Reuters 2011

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